Monday, February 20, 2012

Hamas endangers Gazans rather than allowing Egyptian fuel to go through Israel

Hamas endangers Gazans rather than allowing Egyptian fuel to go through Israel

From Bloomberg, the first (mostly) accurate story about the Gaza power crisis since it started:

Hamas authorities rejected an Egyptian proposal to bring in fuel via an Israeli crossing point to reactivate Gaza’s only power plant, which shut down four days ago when diesel supplies were disrupted.

“This is unacceptable because of our bitter experience with the Zionist occupation and the way it controls the delivery of the shipments,” Ahmed Abu Al-Amreen of the Hamas-run Energy Authority, told reporters.

Diesel for the plant came from Israel until last year when Hamas started to buy cheaper fuel from Egypt, bringing it via a network of underground tunnels. Egypt is bound by agreements with Israel and cannot ship diesel to Gaza directly through the Rafah crossing point, which is limited to the movement of individuals.

Hamas warned this week that hospitals are running out of fuel for generators and food shortages are likely as manufacturers may be forced to halt production. Abu Al-Amreen said that Hamas proposed bringing the Egyptian fuel via Rafah or direct underground pipelines.

Thanks to Hamas, we now know that they consider their people's lived less important than making a symbolic statement against Israel.

Earlier on Sunday [sic?], the Palestinian Authority rejected an Israeli proposal to buy fuel directly from Israel and transport it to Gaza, as it had done so over a year ago.

Palestine Today says that Egypt agreed to provide 600,000 liters of fuel to Gaza daily, but it has no way of delivering it that Hamas would agree to. And, bolstering my theory that Hamas is using the crisis to prop up its status as being independent from the PA, prime minister Haniyeh plans to visit Egypt this week to discuss this crisis that can be solved tomorrow if Hamas didn't care so little about the lives of the citizens under its control.

Will we be seeing outrage from Hamas apologists and Israel bashers who masquerade as "pro-Palestinian?"

(I am not aware of any agreement stopping Egypt from shipping items through Rafah. Plenty of Gaza aid groups sent material through Rafah and I doubt that Israel can veto that. My understanding is that Rafah is simply not physically able to support large quantities of goods and certainly not fuel.)